Proposal Project 2: Eco-188 Aluminium Car

Summary:

Aluminium is a silvery white member of the Boron group of chemical elements. The aluminium car, Eco-188 made from the waste aluminium is lighter compared to other car. Eco-188 consists of 60 percent sheet aluminium, 22 percent aluminium castings and 18 percent extruded aluminium sections. Besides that, LED (Light Emmitting Diode) light can be implemented in Eco-188. LED lights’ operational life is longer than other standard lamps. Aluminium car frame’s lightweight can increased the speed of car and afford better fuel efficiency.

Introduction:

Nowadays, steel remains the material of choice for constructing the weight-bearing frames of motor vehicles. However, the using of aluminium for car frame has been started since 1980s. Aluminium is a silvery white member of the Boron group of chemical elements. It is a durable, lightweight, and soft metal. Nowadays, many of the cut aluminium are thrown away which finally turned into waste material. From these waste aluminiums, we can reform it into car body frame after through many process which using high and low temperature to melt and combine these pieces back to normal. There are quiet many companies which have been using aluminiums to form car frame. Audi R8 is the first mass-produced car frame made entirely of aluminium hit the market.

The left side picture is our design of Eco-188 aluminium car frame

Technical Description:

The Eco-188 aluminium car frame is made of aluminium that formed from the combination of small pieces of the waste aluminium. Eco-188 consists of 60 percent sheet aluminium, 22 percent aluminium castings and 18 percent extruded aluminium sections. The car frame is having the same size with the normal car but its lighter compared to the normal car frame. The thickness of the metal is formed slightly smaller than the normal car.

Project Implementation:

This project has been done by many companies such as Audi and Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ). It has been started around 1980s. The product is processed through a melting n cooling down the aluminium pieces. The car that formed from the waste aluminium is lighter compared to other cars.

Costing:

The cost of Eco-188 aluminium car is about RM 400,000. The cost would be reduced on mass production.

Pros and Cons:

Aluminium car frame’s lightweight can increased the speed of car and afford better fuel efficiency. In addition, aluminium body car can have better handling and increased crash safety. Aluminum is good in corrosion due to the thin layer of aluminium oxide is formed.

There are two main cons of this project. First, the cost of aluminium body car is five times that of steel. Second, aluminium frames need special construction and assembly methods to reach the necessary stability and torsion stiffness of the car.

Sustainability Development:

By using the waste aluminium, we can reduce the wasted material that simply thrown away. On the other hand, there will be lesser aluminium waste. Based on this, the next few years car might be change to waste aluminium car frame.

Besides that, LED (Light Emmitting Diode) light can be implemented in Eco-188. The key strength of LED lighting is reduced power consumption. An LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy. The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy. LED lights’ operational life is up to 100,000 hours. It is longer than other standard lamps.

LED headlight